Traditional FromSoft bleak stoytelling does very little for me, but games like AI Limit and Dolls Nest twist that bleakness into a shape I find compelling by adding just a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. It'd be nice to see more takes like this on the souls genre.

AI Limit is somewhat marred for non-CH players because both its ENG and JP translations are lackluster, but the translations maintain coherency and I think the strength of the setting and characters still shine through.

Shirley is very moe no matter the language you see.

Since I'm in a posting mood, I'll also share that I played AI Limit and really enjoyed it. It's an anime soulslike with great combat, excellent area design, and surprisingly effective storytelling. Injecting a little anime pathos can work wonders for a bleak souls style narrative.

Finally got the chance to watch the fourth Princess Principal movie. This is one of my favorite TV anime and movie franchises of recent years, so each new entry is an exciting time for me. Detailed thoughts attached.

I wonder how long the wait will be for movie 5...

100%'d Gentoo Rescue. An extraordinary puzzle game, up there with giants of the genre like Baba is You and Paquerette Down the Bunburrows. Simple initial mechanics gradually escalate into a rich puzzle tapestry filled with meta twists and astonishing surprises. Brilliant game.

It's comforting to know that no matter how old I get, no matter how much the aches and pains of middle age set in, impossibly bad cooking in anime will never ever change.

And somehow it's still an amusing bit after all these years.

The Watatabe anime continues to bless us with the wonders of Miko, this time featuring an incredible delivery of クソ席！！！ from Fairouz Ai.

The voice acting in this adaptation is everything I ever could have asked for as a fan of the manga. Every line of dialogue is a treat.

Shuumatsu Touring 01:
No one is ready for combat android Renge Non Non Biyori.

Well produced with very nice bgm. The concept is intriguing - basically Non Non Biyori meets Apocalypse Hotel - but it's impossible to tell if it will actually go anywhere. Good enough to watch more.

There is a concerning lack of animation in this episode, but that's not necessarily a huge problem since this isn't an action series or anything. Hopefully at least the character art quality remains strong as the anime goes forward.

Watatabe 01:
Animated and voiced Miko is a joy to behold, and Reina Ueda's performance as Hinako is exceptional. This adaptation makes effective use of excellent bgm and sound direction to replicate the slow, thoughtful atmosphere created by the manga's paneling.

Cute and excellent ending to the Bad Girl anime. I'm glad that yuri media still believes in the power of osananajimi.

I wasn't expecting much from this show, but it ended up being my anime of the season. Cute, consistently amusing, and devilishly surprising. Hard to ask for anything more.

anyway I'm going to go look up hornet x lace yuri now and you can't stop me

Though strangely, I have strong disagreements with some other gamers about what the difficult parts of the game were.

I blame my use of the wanderer crest. Wanderer is love, wanderer is life. I wouldn't be surprised if wanderer pogo'ing just kind of breaks some bosses, lol.

While Silksong's combat gameplay and room design are not as complex and demanding as some of my other favorites in the genre, it still provided enough resistance to be consistently engaging. Bosses usually took me a couple tries, and a few standouts gave me some real trouble.

My biggest complaing with HK1 was that the setting and narrative were so ephemeral that they were lost on me. Silksong fixes this by delivering a cogent and effective narrative set in a rich and flavorful world. It always knew exactly how much dialogue was enough for a moment.

Finished the true end in Silksong. As someone who thought HK1 was a good but not quite excellent game, I have to say that Silksong blew me away. It is unmatched in the field of metroidvanias when it comes to exploration feel and overarching game world scope/design.

Got inspired to get my first DCSS ascension in about a decade.

DCSS has gotten much better over the years. Most of the tedious grind aspects are gone, and the rest of the game has become a complex, dense, and engaging experience. Though newbies might find it inaccessible now...

The storytelling is as sparse as you'd expect from a Souls game, but I nonetheless found the ending very striking.

The combat is admittedly simplistic and unexciting once you figure out the basics, but I think the rest of the game more than makes up for this.

While the production values of the game are clearly limited, it manages to do a lot with a little. Many of the areas absolutely ooze with atmosphere. It even manages to make a really cool darkness based area, and that's a true rarity in video games.

I also played through Doll's Nest over the last week. Great game - it's a compelling blend of Dark Souls style area exploration and Armored Core combat and build tinkering. You even get to play as your own custom designed mecha musume loli. What more could you ask for in a game?

Of course if there's one thing Tsuzuki Masaki (main Nanoha writer) loves more than endless series of kuromakus, it's pointlessly bloated casts. Just look at A's, Strikers, and these movies. I'm sure the Nanoha Exceeds TV anime will be no different in this regard, lol

Detonation even manged to endear me to some of the new characters - namely, Iris. I wonder what if any role they'll have to play in the new TV series.

Honestly it would probably be best to keep them to cameos, but I wouldn't mind more Iris content...

Finally got around to watching the Nanoha Reflection and Detonation movies. Reflection is a total mess of a film, but about half of Detonation manages to tap into some of that old Nanoha magic. The climax with Nanoha herself is especially effective.

thank you watanare for giving me the perfect screenshot to post any time someone uses the phrase "animeslop" in discord

I nearly died laughing during the scene in Gundam ZZ ep16 where Bright emotionally cheats on Mirai while a photo of his family floats around in the background.

I hope this joke(?) keeps happening.

I consistently found Marina to be the most interesting part of the series. In a better world Marina would have had all the screentime that went to Azuma. Maybe then I'd find the final episode - and the series as a whole - less clunky.

Finally finished the Takopi anime. Loved the ending concept, even if the final lead-up to it was clunky.

ShizuMari is incredibly precious. I'm glad the world agrees, and this manifests in the form of tons of ShizuMari fan art for me to enjoy.

So glad today's Takopi finally escaped the Azume dregs. We got a dense and intense episode focused on the central threads of the story.

We're so back. Too bad I'll be traveling the weekend the final episode airs lol.

Read through all the published tankoubon for 対ありでした. ~お嬢さまは格闘ゲームなんてしない~, the yuri fighting game manga by the mangaka of Yuzumori-san. I really loved it! It's a brilliant combination of yuri and love for video games. Detailed thoughts are attached.

I hope the anime turns out well!

You know it's going to be another good episode of Silent Witch when the very first thing you see is this image accompanying amazing Aizawa Saya noises.

I'm impressed this show has not had a quality dip yet - and at this point I think it might keep up until the end!